Accelerated carbonation of recycled concrete aggregate in semi-wet environments : A promising technique for CO2 utilization

Abstract

The practical implementation of accelerated carbonation for recycled waste concrete is impeded by sluggish carbonation efficiency. In contrast to previous carbonation enhancement schemes using high-pressure gas and/or complex pre-/post-processing, this study introduces a novel semi-wet carbonation method that achieves high-efficiency carbonation of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) in a practically simple way. A noteworthy carbonation degree of 10.6 % was achieved within 30 min at room temperature and ambient pressure, which enhanced the RCA by reducing the water absorption rate and porosity by 3.6 % and 20 % respectively. The formed CaCO3 is primarily in calcite form with poorer crystallinity and smaller grain size and the formed silica gel features a lower polymerization degree compared with those formed in wet carbonation. It is due to that the carbonation reactions for the semi-wet scenario happen at the spatially confined water film of the solid-liquid interface. Moreover, the addition of sodium bicarbonate significantly accelerated the semi-wet carbonation, which is due to the weak alkaline environment lowering the CO2 speciation free energy as revealed by reactive molecular dynamics simulations. The proposed semi-wet carbonation method provides a promising way of pushing industrial CO2 capture and utilization.